Giordano: Andrea Chenier Excerpt

Posted November 19, 2010

Not only do the storylines of great literary works find their way onto the opera stage, but sometimes the authors themselves!

Two particular examples of operas about famous authors include Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and this selection, Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chenier. Giordano’s opera is about a famous French poet who was later executed during the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution.

The title role of Andrea Chenier is a tour-de-force role for any tenor. This aria is from Act I, when Andrea Chenier is invited to a party held by a wealthy countess and her bourgeois friends. Chenier is asked to improvise a poem on the spot, and the result is this beautiful aria, “One Day to the Blue Spaces.”

The libretto of Giordano’s opera was written by Luigi Illica, who also collaborated with Giacomo Puccini on such operatic masterpieces as La boheme, Tosca and Madama Butterfly!

Music Heard On This Episode

Umberto Giordano (1867-1948): “One Day To the Blue Spaces” from Andrea Chenier

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